Bette Midler On Producing Beaches: I’m pleased with the film. But producing – who knew it would be so hard? I had to make decisions I never had to make before. In pre-production, I had to find songs and record them, learn choreography and then all kinds of work on details: the colors of sets; casting; hiring the crew; costumes: Barbara didn’t want to wear plaid. It’s like going to war.” (Reading Eagle, December 24, 1988)

In an age when more and more viewers are binge-viewing, streaming and watching on demand, American broadcasters are fighting back with as much live event television as they can muster. More is on their way, with Fox mounting a two-hour production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show for fall (with Tim Curry narrating) and NBC bringingHairspray back as its next live holiday extravaganza.

attends the “Equity” Premiere during the 2016 Sundance Film Festival at Library Center Theater on January 26, 2016 in Park City, Utah.

If â€œThe Wolf of Wall Streetâ€ took flak in some quarters for complicitly reveling in the glossy moral bankruptcy of its otherwise loaded brokers, the same accusation is unlikely to be leveled against â€œEquity.â€ Meera Menonâ€™s refreshingly female-skewed financial thriller proves that the women of Wall Street can be just as cold-heartedly corrupt as the boys, but most viewers wonâ€™t be remotely seduced by the pitiless pressure-cooker environment its drawn-faced characters inhabit. Yet while the severity of the filmâ€™s environment convinces, the specifics of Amy Foxâ€™s screenplay â€” tangled up in tech IPOs, post-Snowden security paranoia and venal investment banking practice â€” are less consistently persuasive. Snapped up by Sony Classics prior to its Sundance premiere, Menonâ€™s film has a strong marketing hook in its more-novel-than-it-should-be gender purview; it may, however, find VOD a more bullish market.Read More

Why Bette Midler Wants To Do A Concert Movie After The Rose: â€œI love to sing. And I think people love it when you sing. I do, My stage act is kind of â€˜low rent.â€™ My act is like a stripper with a little bit of education. I do a lot of double entendre stuff. Some of it is quite, quite gross. Thatâ€™s really what Iâ€™m known for. Iâ€™d like to do a film in which I do that. Iâ€™m gonna.â€ (The Milwaukee Journal â€“ Dec 2, 1979)